Melamine sponge functionalized with carbon nanodots for the extraction of polyaromatic hydrocarbons and musks from environmental samples prior to their determination by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.

In this study, the functionalization of melamine sponge (MeS) with graphene quantum dots (GQDs) and its use as a sorbent for the extraction of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and musks from environmental samples are presented. The MeS@GQDs is prepared by modification of the MeS with GQDs in a one-pot, single-step, in situ synthesis, using citric acid as carbon source. The produced MeS@GQDs was used to develop and optimize an analytical method based on solid-phase extraction mode, for the subsequent analysis of soil samples and treated effluents exploiting the extraction properties of the synthesized MeS@GQDs. The developed method not only presented satisfactory repeatability (RSD<8.7%) and inter-day repeatability (RSD<9.6%), but also its limits of quantification were found to be low (15-80 ng L). Moreover, the proposed method was linear in a wide range of concentrations (0.015-11.8 µg L) and the recoveries from difficult matrixes, such as treated effluents and soil, were satisfactory. Overall, the use of the sorbent for the development of a new analytical method was found to be advantageous as compared with other reported methods.